G-banding and chromosome structure

Abstract

G-banding of chromosomes promises to be the most valuable technique for routine chromosome analysis due to its inherent simplicity, sensitivity, and stability of the material obtained. In the past, banding procedures have had several shortcomings in regard to efficiency and consistency of results. It is now possible to obtain good and consistent quality banding by using minor modifications of the standard technique, including the use of diluted Giemsa. This has eliminated the need of “pre-treatment” of the chromosome preparation, a point overemphasized in most of the work published so far. G-banding can also be observed using DNA (Feulgen) and histone (Alcian blue) stains. The results obtained by this simple technique suggest that banding represents a native conformational feature of chromosomes.